David McKenna says Crossmaglen have been reinvigorated by the emergence of a number of young players this year.

The long-serving midfielder feels the like of Shane Farrelly, Conor O'Neill, Stephen Morris, Oisin O'Neill and Aidan Rushe have given the old guard a new lease of life. 

"We got a great influx of minor footballers this year," McKenna told the Irish News after Cross' were crowned Ulster club football champions for an 11th time yesterday.

"They won the county title and came into the squad bursting with confidence and while they added quality it also give me and the older boys motivation to try and win an Ulster title for them.

"The hunger and the motivation is still there but the likes of those minors coming through has given us a real lift and it will drive us on to help them up the steps to lift more silverware."

Just back from injury, McKenna replaced Johnny Hanratty at half-time and will be pushing for a starting place when Cross' face Castlebar Mitchels for a place in the All-Ireland final in the New Year.

"Castlebar are in our sights, there is no doubt about that. We will enjoy Christmas and we could be lucky enough that John McEntee and Oisin McConville might give us a week off.

"But we will have a few sessions during Christmas, basically so we can look after ourselves and then come the first week of January, we will focus our sights on Castlebar."

Tweet

Most Read Stories